V. I. Lenin

Meeting Of Presidium
      Of The Petrograd Soviet
      With Delegates From Food Supply
      Organisations

January 14 (27), 1918[1]

Delivered:14 January, 1918First Published:1924 in the magazineKrasnaya LetopisNo. 1. Published according to a
      handwritten copy of the Minutes.Source:Lenin’sCollected
      Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972,
      pp. 501-502Translated:Yuri Sdobnikov and George
      Hanna, Edited by George HannaTranscription & HTML Markup:Charles
      Farrell and David WaltersOnline Version:Lenin Internet ArchiveDecember,
      2000

On Combating The Famine

Vladimirov's data indicate that the old ration should not be
    changed. Measures must be taken to find what there is available in
    Petrograd.

All these data show that the workers of Petrograd are
      monstrously inactive. The Petrograd workers and soldiers must
      understand that they have no one to look to but themselves. The
      facts of abuse are glaring, the speculation, monstrous; but what
      have the mass of soldiers and workers done about it? You cannot
      do anything without rousing the masses to action. A plenary
      meeting of the Soviet must be called to decide on mass searches
      in Petrograd and the goods stations. To carry out these
      searches, each factory and company must form contingents, not on
      a voluntary basis: it must be the duty of everyone to take part
      in these searches under the threat of being deprived of his
      bread card. We can't expect to get anywhere unless we resort to
      terrorism: speculators must be shot on the spot. Moreover,
      bandits must be dealt with just as resolutely: they must be shot
      on the spot.

The rich section of the population must be left without bread
      for three days because they have stocks of other foodstuns and
      can afford to pay the speculators the higher price.

Draft Resolution

A plenary meeting of the Petrograd Soviet shall be called to
      take revolutionary measures to fight speculators and overcome
      the famine:

(1)	All soldiers and workers must be recruited to form
    several thousand groups (consisting of 10-15 men, and possibly
    more) who shall be bound to devote a certain number of hours (say,
    3-4) daily to the food supply service.

(2)	Regiments and factories failing to provide the number
    of groups required shall be deprived of bread cards, subjected to
    revolutionary coercive and penal measures.

(3)	The groups shall immediately conduct searches,
    firstly, of railway stations, inspecting and counting cars loaded
    with grain; secondly, of railway tracks and junctions near
    Petrograd; thirdly, of all warehouses and private living quarters.

The instructions covering search, counting and requisition
    shall be worked out by the presidium of the Petrograd Soviet with
    participation of delegates from the district Soviets or by a
    special commission.

(4)	Speculators who are caught and fully exposed as such
    shall be shot by the groups on the spot. The same penalty shall be
    meted out to members of the groups who are exposed as dishonest.

(5)	The most reliable and best armed groups of the mass of
    revolutionary contingents organised to take extreme measures to
    overcome the famine shall be detailed for dispatch to all stations
    and all uyezds of the principal grain supplying gubernias. These
    groups, with the participation of railway-men delegated by local
    railway committees, shall be authorised, firstly, to control the
    movement of grain freights; secondly, take charge of the
    collection and storage of grain; thirdly, adopt the most extreme
    revolutionary measures to fight speculators and to requisition
    grain stocks.

(6)	When making any record of requisition, arrest or
    execution, the revolutionary contingents shall summon at least six
    witnesses to be selected from the poorest section of the
    population closest at hand.

[1]The meeting of the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet with
    delegates from food supply organisations discussed the grave food
    situation of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd who received
    only a quarter of a pound of bread a day. It heard a report by a
    representative of the food board on the prospects of better food
    supplies for Petrograd and a report of the unloading commission. A
    decision of the Council of People’s Commissars on January 19
    (February 1) increased the food ration to half a pound for the
    entire population of Petrograd.